Building & BaLA Initiatives

Building As Learning Aid (BALA) is about developing the school’s entire physical environment as a learning aid – the inside, the outside, the semi-open spaces – every where. At the core, it is about maximizing the educational ‘value’ of a built space. It is based on ‘how children learn’.

Schools are specialized spaces for learning. Traditionally, school buildings were conceived to provide shelter to the activity of education. They were treated as structures of bricks and mortar, rather than as enclosures that encompass a learning environment. Often, not much attention is paid to the interface between building design and the design of the teaching and learning program – how the use of space and its constituent elements, including lighting and ventilation, can support more diverse learning activities apart from frontal teaching (for example, for small group learning, individual reading, for project work).